Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers affiliated with the University of Washington’s Autism Center have found an “abnormal pattern of connectivity” in the brains of autistic adults; this different neurological “wiring” may be responsible for social impairments that are one feature of autism. The study, which is published in the journal Brain, focused on the brain regions that process faces, the fusiform face area. From today’s Science Daily:
The research team led by Elizabeth Aylward, a UW professor of radiology, examined connectivity in the limbic system, or the network of brain regions that are involved with processing social and emotional information. …read more

According to Dr. Fernando Miranda of the Bright Mind Institute, maybe not. A report in the May 19th Good Morning America/ABC News describes some children who were initially diagnosed with autism, and later found to have Landau-Kleffner Syndrome. For some of the children, anti-seizure medication has produced dramatic results and Dr. Miranda is said to insist that “you have to look inside the brain to determine what’s wrong,” via MRIs and EEGs.
The ABC report portrays parents as greatly relieved to know that there is a medical issue for their child’s disorder, and that the child does not have autism:
To …read more